Conceptualization

World Wide Web

Mathematics education

Philosophy

Pedagogy

The Internet

Computer science

Faculty development

Mainstream

Professional development

Computer-mediated communication

Psychology

Online teaching

Political science

Epistemology

Sociology

Artificial intelligence

Equity (law)

Distance education

Critical theory

Higher education

Distance Education

Online courses are mainstream throughout higher education. This pattern has been accelerated, temporarily or permanently, due to the coronavirus pandemic (Allen & Seaman, 2016; Arum & Stevens, 2020; Garrison, 2011). Tenure-track and contingent faculty’s willingness to teach online serves students, but little research critiques the forces that produce and constrain faculty’s efforts. Even the most current discussions of faculty readiness lack a strong grounding in criticality. Without such a critical orientation, the power and equity issues involved in the higher education marketplace of online teaching cannot be adequately examined. This critical integrated literature review of 44 studies documents themes of the affective dimensions and identity disruption surrounding faculty’s readiness to teach online and explores their professional vulnerability. Structural and cultural forces that produce and constrain faculty’s experiences transitioning to online teaching emerged from the analysis. This conceptualization of faculty readiness provides a foundation upon which to theorize faculty’s equitable experiences of online teaching.

A critical reconceptualization of faculty readiness for online teaching